Saturday in Manhattan’s Lower East Side belonged entirely to The Dandy Warhols. They spent the early evening performing an intimate acoustic warm‑up inside the Public Hotel on Chrystie Street, a curious place swimming with finance bros, music industry folks, and the glamourous downtown set puffing on Marlboros on the carousel in the front garden. The band played stripped-down versions of their classics, all four of them strumming nonstop in unison, including a cover of The Cure, which prompted a hilarious story from Courtney Taylor-Taylor about the time Zia taught Robert Smith how to play pool. “…And as a matter of fact SHE was there – and saw the whole thing!” he exclaimed, pointing straight at a seated guest like Hercule Poirot. (The witness testified.)
Zia McCabe, sporting a memorable vintage Vivienne Westwood SEX choker, cheesed with fans and cheerfully recalled her DJ set from the night before. After a dinner break, they barreled south for the real business: a sold‑out, sweat‑slick night at the Bowery Ballroom.
The house was already humming when the lights dropped and Ride washed over the room. Courtney Taylor‑Taylor’s languid, velvety drawl slid across McCabe’s fuzz‑soaked keys, turning the floor into one big choir; detonating pockets of pogoing beneath the chandeliers. Brent DeBoer kept time with blissful precision, harmonizing with his cousin Courtney as the smoke curled around him, making it look like he might launch into orbit at any moment.
Halfway through, the universe threw its curveball. A vintage amp fizzed, coughed, and spluttered in a chorus of cacophony. Taylor‑Taylor, never one to miss a punch‑line, kicked the carcass and shouted, “Ah, FUCK! Well…you know, his amp IS older than anyone in here.” Two minutes of cable triage later, the band punched straight into action; the setback instantly forgotten. By the time We Used to Be Friends and Not If You Were the Last Junkie On Earth rolled around, the audience transformed into a jubilant chorus, fists raised, dancing with reckless abandon in that hallowed music hall.
They closed with a one‑two that felt pre‑ordained: Bohemian Like You bleeding into the stitched medley of Pete International Airport / Boys Better, the final chords ricocheting off walls that have hosted everyone from Patti Smith to They Might Be Giants. Voices were shredded, shirts translucent, and still no one wanted to leave.
Backstage, the party kept its grin. Pete Holmström unfurled a stack of long‑out‑of‑print posters for fans, scribbling his name in gold ink. Jason Russo, his Pete International Airport compadre, handed over some Tee Pee Records calling cards, posing the bluntly provocative question of the evening: “So, which band member are you in love with?” (Answer: All of them, baby! All of them!)
Later, Courtney Taylor‑Taylor baptized a vigorously-shaken jar of Whole Foods peanut butter “Hippie Skippy,” mulling over a possibility of using it as some Adam Ant-style face paint to match his poet shirt.
Seconds before call time, Zia McCabe dragged everyone into the green‑room shower for portraits. Hugs, laughing, conspiratorial mischief, great vibes all around. Three decades after their debut, the Dandy Warhols remain chaos‑curators of the highest order: funny, feral, and fully in command of the room…geriatric amps, Hippie Skippy, and all.
Though The Dandy Warhols have concluded the American leg of their tour, they will be roaming all over Europe this summer, making stops in France, Greece, Romania, Austria, Germany, and more. Don’t miss them live:
- 07/04/25 – Hérouville-Saint-Clair, FR – Beauregard Festival
- 07/09/25 – Athens, GR – Univers
- 07/10/25 – Ioannina, GR – Peaki Sports Complex
- 07/11/25 – Patras, GR – Palaia Sfageia
- 07/12/25 – Sofia, BG – Arena Sofia
- 07/14/25 – Bucharest, RO – Quantic Club
- 07/16/25 – Zagreb, HR – Boogaloo Club
- 07/17/25 – Prague, CZ – Lucerna Music Bar
- 07/18/25 – Debrecen, HU – Campus Festival
- 07/20/25 – Vienna, AT – WUK
- 07/21/25 – Katowice, PL – P23
- 07/23/25 – Hamburg, DE – GF36
- 07/25/25 – Emo, IE – Forest Fest
- 07/26/25 – Guimarães, PT – Rock No Rio Febres
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